


Someone

by PeroxidePirate



Series: Bright Future [2]
Category: Tortall - Pierce
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-24
Updated: 2010-02-24
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeroxidePirate/pseuds/PeroxidePirate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kel tells the truth, even though it's not easy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Let's sit,” Kel suggested. There was a moon in the sky and she and Cleon had been walking in the palace gardens.

“Here?” he asked, one hand at her waist and the other pointing at a stone bench.

“Sure.” They arranged themselves, but when Cleon leaned in to kiss her, Kel drew away. “Cleon,” she began, “I don't know how to say this.”

“How to say what?” he asked, eyes worried.

“This... this thing we have, it has to stop.” She tried to keep her voice neutral – he'd been her friend, before, and she hoped to salvage the friendship, at least. “I'm sorry, but it's not right for me.”

He swollowed, hard, drawing into himself. “Is there someone else?”

“Yes,” she replied, honestly. _Buri, with her coppery skin and a quick, sometimes sardonic, smile. Dark braids, dark playful eyes. Stocky build that still, somehow, seemed delicate beside Kel. Wisdom and good advice in any situation._ “Nothing's happened, but there is someone I...” She fumbled for the right word. It wasn't love, not yet. But it wasn't _like_ that was a problem. “Someone I want more,” she finished, in a whisper.


	2. Chapter 2

“Who is it?” Cleon asked. “Not that it's really my business, of course.”

“Please don't...” Kel began.

“Is it Neal?”

“No.” _Not anymore._

“Owen?”

She almost laughed. “Don't be absurd.”

“Someone I don't know?”

Kel sighed. “It's someone you don't know well. Someone I can't be with. But it's still not fair to be with you when I feel this way... about someone else.”

Cleon laughed, but it was hollow and without joy. “I should do the right thing – be a man – and thank you for telling me the truth.” He looked at her, pleading. “But if you can't be with him anyway, couldn't we...”

_If you can't be with **him.**_ She knew she should do the honest thing – be a woman – and correct him. All she said was, again, “I'm sorry.”

She sat alone in the garden for a long time after Cleon left, wishing desperately that Buri would happen past. _Wisdom and good advice._ But what were the odds of that?


End file.
